Neil Astley

Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. He has edited nearly a thousand poetry books and published several bestselling anthologies, including Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004) and Being Human (2011) - the three volumes of the Staying Alive Trilogy - as well as Passionfood (2005), Earth Shattering: ecopoems (2007), and two collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds (2007) and the world's first DVD poetry anthology, In Person: 30 Poets (2008), which combines six hours of filmed readings with all the texts read by the poets (plus a history of Bloodaxe). He was given a D.Litt by Newcastle University for his pioneering work with Bloodaxe, and won an Eric Gregory Award for his own poetry. He has published two poetry collections, Darwin Survivor and Biting My Tongue, and two novels, The End of My Tether (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award), and The Sheep Who Changed the World. He lives in the Tarset Valley in Northumberland.